Rep. Harris Makes Bid For Senate

October 16, 1991|By David Ibata.

A northwest suburban legislator who took a leading role in Springfield this spring in a controversy over a children`s reading series in local schools has declared his candidacy for the Illinois Senate.

State Rep. David Harris (R-Arlington Heights) said he would run for the 27th Senate District seat in the Republican primary in March. Harris will seek the seat of Sen. Virginia Macdonald, an Arlington Heights Republican who is retiring at the end of her term.

Harris made his announcement Monday in the cafeteria of St. Viator High School, Arlington Heights, where Harris said he got his first taste of politics 25 years ago when running for a seat on the student council.

Harris said that he looked forward to serving in a Senate in which the GOP could hold a majority. The Republicans controlled this year`s legislative redistricting.

``This is exciting. This is just wonderful,`` Harris said. ``Our suburban, Republican-dominated area will finally enjoy the political muscle that we so rightly and richly deserve based on our population and our economic influence.``

Under the Republican map, the 27th District would encompass most of Arlington Heights, Mt. Prospect, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Prospect Heights and parts of Des Plaines and Inverness.

Harris, 42, is the first candidate to declare for Macdonald`s Senate seat. Harris has followed in Macdonald`s footsteps before, having successfully campaigned for her House seat when she moved to the Senate in 1982.

Harris and Macdonald sponsored legislation in the House and Senate this year that would have opened up public school curricula to increased parental involvement. The bills resulted from a controversy over the use of the

``Impressions`` reading series in Arlington Heights and Palatine public schools.

Some parents tried to get the series banned, saying it was full of violence, references to the occult and disrespect for authority.

The legislation failed to pass, however, and local educators rebuffed attempts to have the series pulled from the classrooms.

Harris also sponsored legislation this spring seeking to curb Springfield`s practice of ordering municipalities, school districts and other localities to implement mandatory programs, or mandates, without providing state funds to pay for them.

``When the General Assembly says, `Do this,` and then does not provide the funding with which to do it, that`s not right,`` Harris said. ``Mandates equate to higher property taxes, for that`s the main source of revenue for units of local government.``

Harris maintained that he supported property tax limitations-``whatever is reasonable,`` he said, which could include extending the 5 percent cap on property tax increases from the collar counties to Cook County, or other changes.

The candidate said that he also would work to change the state aid formula for education to ensure more money for suburban schools, making them less reliant on property taxes.

Harris had been expected to declare for the Senate since Ruth Grundberg, Wheeling Township supervisor, announced that she would run in the Republican primary for Harris` 53rd District House seat.

In the western half of Macdonald`s Senate district, state Rep. Bernard E. Pedersen (R-Palatine) announced Saturday that he would seek re-election to his 54th District House seat, setting up a GOP primary faceoff against Palatine Village President Rita Mullins.